change. he'll make it affordable for us. that's how we keep our cost down by having healthy citizens and we believe education is paramount and he looks out for the middle class, that's us. >> mitt romney used for your years the term obamacare to attack the health care reform. do you think it was a referendum on that? >> no, i think obama has a plan in mind and there's nothing wrong with that. it's going move things around and organize health care in a better way. >> i wonder, what do you make of the celebration, especially as we called barack obama. >> it's awesome. >> is it what you thought it would be? >> it's great. >> two satisfied voters. if nothing else, i would argue there are a few more behind me in time square tonight. >> let's go to ron bron stein

now. there's so much we'll learn about the parties. one fact i want to throw out at you as you reflect on this victory. you look at the last six elections, democrats have won the popular vote five out of six times just as the republicans did before. the margins hadn't been as big but thaifr been behind this growing groups, minorities, young people, the million yal generation and the college educated white women. it is a coalition that continue toss grow in sxiez allows democrats to overcome very weak performances. you look at florida and virginia where he's right in there punching, he's winning well under 40% of white voters

and still in a position to fight for them. >> what is it this really says about who we are tonight. >> i think we should take a minute as george said to reflect on this story. i mean this is remarkable american story. and what he, what rerepresents personally but also the changing america that has put him in this place. i think that that's why people get so excited about it because they recognize themselves in him in a way they never recognized themselves in any leader before because it was never there before. now his tweet, we are all in this together is something he really needs to deliver on because we have to come out of this election being much more unified than the way we've gone into the election. >> there's another reason why

this is historic in addition to the obvious one, this is a president who had running for re-election with with high unemployment, a low approval rating for much of this year, and a majority of the people here thought the country is going in the wrong track. by any measure, you would have thought he was heading for defeat and he won. we have never seen it happen on any of those marks to be that low wing re-election in the modern era. . >> as we look at this celebration, i want to think of someone else and that is the 65- year old mitt romney who ran such a long sxras barbara walters i'm bringing you back because they say adversity introduces us to ourselves. what is it you know is going on with him tonight.

>> i think that his wife is holding his hand and saying we are okay, we will get through this. she has said and he has said this is the end of the political career. had barack obama lost, he still l could have gone on and had a future political career. he also said he'd like to teach or mentor. he's 51 years old, there's a future. for mitt romney, this is the end of his political career. he may go into business with with one of his sons. he can start another, you know, fj hedge fund or whatever it is but the political career is finished and the only one who may everyone have a little feeling of relief is his wife who said this was a very tough race, that she would never want to go through it again. but you look at this man now and he's 65 years old, it's the end of his political career and

you have to take a little sigh. now did this happen because of that 47%, you know, we'll have to go back to that. was that his big mistake or was barack obama just too popular. >> you have to absolute anyone who is willing to put themselveses through this process. president obama is pretty determined not to be defined by his race, that's clear from the beginning of his first campaign yet we saw a president completely embraced by the african american people like they've never embraced a candidate before. >> he may not have wanted to be embraced by his race but for the people it's what they do. we did a piece and we looked at a documentary and one thing that struck me most is that the african american relationship with the president is complicated. they were affected by the bad

economy like everybody else. the issues with with the president on gay marriage but the thing that was telling in that meese was african americans felt the president was disrespected through much of his term. i'm talking to the speech where the you lie comment was made and where the governor was pointed the finger in his face. they felt strongly they should get out and vote and i spoke with my colleague a few minutes ago and he said the african american turn out in 2012 matches that of 2008. >> looking at this crowd i'm looking ats tweetings, the battle over obamacare is over. you can't declare war on women and win. . >> i dhi there's two things i have that's fundamental about this had, first, this wasn't -- the problem you have here is

not so much ant mitt romney it's the republican brand. i looked at the numbers tonight and recalculated if george w. bush had run this time and gotten the same margin, he would've lost in this race. everyone a can dad that was popular like he was in 2004. one thing about the president, he ran a great race, he has some e mens challenges ahead. tonight e, he won an election, the vast majority of white voters voted against him. the majority of older voters, voted against him, the majority of church goers who go regularly, voted against him there are huge divides in this country and he has not healed them. he has to heal those divides. >> as i said earlier, you said there has to be a peace treaty. >> i think a peace conference that we have within our own

country because of these huge divides. > . >> in nevada, we have a projection that nevada has come through for barack obama. >> in 2004 when george w. bush won we thought we had a man dade to reform medicare. we misread that 2004 vote. i think if i could offer any advice and no one from the white house is going to call me, but my advice would be do not misread a man date that does not exist for you. not only did half of the country not vote for you, they distrust you as someone who understands their problems and who will do what they need which is solve the dispair in the country. >> not just half of the country, half of washington.

we are now coming out of a campaign that probably spent 6 billion collar $6 billion collar dollar -- in aggregate to return the status quo to washington. a $6 billion campaign that changes virtually nothing. one of the big stories we thought were those huge republican super pacts. they spent over $300 million just on senate races and they have ended up probably a net loss of senate races. they come to congress looking almost exactly like it did before the election and i'll tell you george, this president, usually when the president is re-elected you have talk of how much capital is there, what's the second term agenda, he starts tomorrow to face big problems with this congress, this fiscal cliff, whatever you want to call it,

by the end of the year, everybody's taxes go up if he can't get a deal with congress. >> 56 days. let's go back to jake. what are you hearing about when the president will come out j. >> he's expected in the next 45 minutes or hour. now the campaign is getting its thoughts together. remember, president obama came armed with two speeches for tonight. one of them, he will not be delivering and that is the concession speech. the other will be the president reaching out trying to bring the nation together. obvious this was a hard fought campaign. we already see some results on other news networks, and on twitter, people not liking the results, not liking the direction that this nation decided it wanted to keep going. president obama has a tall task

in uniting the country and talking about a way forward. that will prove difficult in the coming weeks because there are a lot of big legislative issues that the congress will have to grapple with. right now, the white house, president obama is deciding exactly how to talk to the nation and preparing for it. it should be in the next half our, 45 mince. until then we have radio silence from the president's top aides. you will not see them speaking to anyone. they want this moment to be the president's and not have anybody else who is part of the campaign team taking any of the thunder. >> we could hear from mitt romney first. he is heading to his campaign head quarter. as you said he only prepared one speech. tonight i get we'll see him

speak from his sglart from his heart and obviously he'll have to tweak what he was working on today. i can give you a sense of the crowd though. there say swelg crowd here in boston. people are holding small american flags, they're ready to greet him and hear what mitt romney will say. they'll have a united front as the romney family always does. there is some question about whether the governor is headed down here at this moment. the numbers in ohio are so close and there is a thought among some in here that perhaps they're not ready to concede. we'll continue to work that out. emily freedman is working that part of the story. as you can see here t crowd is really fixed on the screens as they have been for the last half an hour. it's very quiet in here and has been for most of the night except for some of the initial wins in the early states. a difficult evening for the

people who thought as his campaign portrayed that they had a shot at winning the presidency tonight. . >> and i keep thinking a lot about the girls of the president. what is it to see your father, there they are, they're 11 and 14 now. >> i remember those words when they wint to the lincoln memorial and talked about him being the first african american president and she told him he better do a good job. >> is this some vind kags for the president and his team saying as joe biden said, don't judge me against the all mighty, judge me against the alternative. we pounds, pound, pound the alternative. >> donna, the president and his team did take a lot of hits

in the early campaign about mitt romney's experience, you had bill clinton doing the same thing. a lot of top business people in new york, they stayed the course. >> elections are about choices and the obama team understood from the get go that if the voters were presented two choices, one that was forward looking was projecting confidence that he could move the economy and the other alternative, somebody with a loudz lousy record as a businessman and the president's team took a huge risk in lowering his own favorablety going after mitt romney.

. >> they're going to be governing over a divided country and unless they find a way to deal with that, it's going be difficult. >> i have to bring this question to george, right after president obama was elected four yearings ago, he went to your house didn't he. >> for a dinner party reaching out to conservatives that was supposed to be the promise of the first term, air person that could heal the division. clearly although he's bln releblthed, not all of that healing happened, what went wrong in that relationship between the president and conservatives. >> books are being written about what went wrong. it has to do with the stim scomplus the health care bill,

two huge piece offense legislation were paced purely on party lines. the obama people say we reached out and couldn't get takers, the takers on the republican side would disagree with with that. the president will pay a price for having said what he did about mitt romney. he got not much of a mandate out of this had and the system encourages obstruction and i'll read to you what i read earlier, we, meaning his republican caucus in the house will have as much as of a mandate as he will campaign because it

was highlighting differences but, in fact, i think you'll see them move to try to do that and the key question will be whether republicans having held on to their majority in the house will be willing to consider a deal that considers higher taxes. >> the polarization question is exacerbated after this election not just because who voted but who was . >> in the senate we now have -- now have people who are more liberal on the democratic side and more conservative on the

republican side and we have a house with with safe seats and the reason those seats are so safe is because the districts are drawn so that only that party can get elected until the only way it was.

>> you mentioned the obama campaign tweeted. we thought we would show you that photo now because tsz one of the most retweeted photos and tweets in history. this has become the social

media slash entertainment night corner because katie perry tweeted done and dusted. . >> paris jackson said saying a prayer, thank you god and timely, donald trump wrote, well, back to the drawing board. this is how some celebrities are reacting to the results. >> you have to love the celebrity twitter world. . >> is it possible to go back to that photo. >> yeah. >> take a look as we go to a break and we'll be back with more. know. the big speeches coming up. what a night this is. we'll be back. ññjodç

>> announcer: welcome back to nbc news live coverage of election night 2012. we have a winner. barack obama has been re-elected president of the united states. >> we have a winner. it is now 9:00 on the west coast and we are awaiting the president coming out to speak about -- >> he's with the romney campaign. says romney has not called president obama yet but we want to go to jake tapper who is in chicago and the crowd is growing there as well. not quite as big as four years ago, jake, but just as much excitement. >> reporter: they are, indeed, just as excited although, of course, it's not the same, not

the same crowd, it's not al gore's. it's not the same type of moment we experienced four years ago but that's always been the case with the election. -- the president was not drawing the same crowd he drew four years ago but was drawing bigger crowds than his opponent. would have been interested if he ran against him but he wasn't, he was running against mitt romney. victory in a lot of states that were very hard fought. also a victory for polling. for the poll numbers that ultimately proved correct even though there were many, many skeptics on the other side of the aisle saying that the poll numbers were wrong, that the turnout was going to be quite different. it turned out it was as many respected polls said it was going to be but this is a very historic moment, the third president in a row to be re-elected. the first president in history, i believe, to be re-elected to a

second term with fewer electoral votes than he was elected to with the first term, but president obama, of course, going -- tonight he'll talk about the need to unite the country, talking about how he is campaigning. he campaigns the way he will govern with everybody together and we expect him to come on stage after, of course, mitt romney has given his speech. that will come after mitt romney concedes to the president. we all expect that to play out in the next few minutes, george. >> okay, i want to go back to david muir and some of the poll numbers. one of the things governor romney could not shake throughout this campaign was the feeling among plurality of americans, at least, that he favored the wealthy and of those who thought he favored the wealthy they broke 8-1 for the president and this was the toughest night for mitt romney to -- he was in touch with people's economic pain. >> reporter: yeah, i got to tell you, george, after this i think there will be a lot of analysis of that caricature fairly or

unfairly as a businessman but his tax plan, as you know, there were a lot of questions that went unanswered how he would pay for it, tax cuts across the board including the wealthiest of americans and that was something obama campaign continued to hit him on right up the end and perhaps that will be bo borne out in some polling that many americans didn't understand it or accept the fact he was willing to push through tax cuts for the wealthy. as we wait for governor romney to come into the room, a couple of quick thoughts about the day and a couple things romney said earlier in the day. he was asked when he went into the polling booth and saw his name on the ballot after fighting for so long, six, seven years campaigning to be president he said he was humbled but was asked about his father who was the governor of michigan who ran for president himself about his mother and said i certainly hope that they're able to watch in whatever they can here tonight. he talked about them. he talked about the president today. he was asked about the president.

what have you learned along the campaign trail and he brought up something that he has said before and i'm sure he'll probably say it again tonight that he has great respect for president obama as a father. he did say earlier today that it is time to move forward in the new direction and was hoping that americans would choose him to do that. but i'm suspecting you'll hear him try to strike a different tone here a short time from now in talking about the president that he has described on the trail as a dad that he does respect and about the speech, you know, he has often talked about his speech writers along the way, stu stevens, one of his top strategists who put them together and a lot of talk about it at the republican convention and a couple things left off and critiques that will toed and never put it off on the strategist but always took full credit and full criticism for any of the speeches that he gave along the way and as we saw there in those images there was one key photograph of him on the plane with his ipad in front of him working on it himself and we talked about how he knew it right down to the number of

words, 1,118 or something close to that. the word count on what he had prepared tonight. i suspect it won't be all that different from what he was going to say but will certainly interest to tweak it and often a more cordial tone to the president which he's gone after for quite some time and expecting in the room -- it's a tough room. you can see on the screen varying networks with the cheers and some of the reports coming in of this spontaneous reaction out in front of the white house. it is not what this room really wants to watch here tonight but they are waiting for governor romney and i guarantee it will be an extraordinary welcome when the governor and his wife, ann romney, who has been his weapon by his side for so many years in these political fights when they enter the room a short time from now. >> david, i know in the land and the great continent of what might have been, i think there's going to be a lot of analysis of what has been of bain capital and the hurricane and the 47%.

did it not go away as it seemed to go away and president obama, by the way, has issued an e-mail to his supporters saying he's about to speak to the crowd in chicago and wanted to thank them. >> to the boards. there are still three states. three big states outstanding. virginia, florida and colorado. i want everybody to take a look at this right now. florida right now, 91% of the vote is in. president obama is ahead. virginia, 87% of the vote is in. president obama is ahead. 50%-49%. colorado, 72% of the vote is in. president obama is ahead. matthew dowd, i want to bring it to you. too early on that but this has more of the makings, if this continues the trend we see, right now of something like another wave right here and the president, if all three of these came in but if all three came in, he would have more than 330 electoral votes right up to the edge of where he was four years ago. >> absolutely and the only -- if

that happens and the only states that were give-backs were indiana and north carolina and as we talked about before this and last sunday, george, we talked about this is this is a very, very close race nationally, if you look at the national numbers, i think it's 0.5% so it's a national vote that's basically tied. who knows? he might end up -- could end up losing the popular vote. but what happens in these races is the dominos fall and as we've looked at this over the last year or so, there is beginning to be an electoral college advantage for the democrats in this. used to be an electoral college advantage for the republicans but as the country shifted and as the country has changed demographically and geographically there is becomen an electoral advantage for the democrats. >> say a good word for the electoral college. doing tonight what it's supposed to do which is magnify the decisiveness of the victory and it's maligned. incessantly maligned and

simple-mindedly maligned. we're seeing it's very useful in presenting to the country an emphatically re-elected president -- >> i don't know if we want to get into the debate on this. because of the design of the electoral college is a 200-year-old manifestation of something that no longer exists and its purpose no longer exist. >> so is the constitution. >> i think i'll bottle that one for sunday. >> let's go to "nightline" anchor terry moran who has covered barack obama since the beginning. terry. >> reporter: one of the things that strikes me about this victory for barack obama is clearly sweep after this hard campaign but i think it's also much more of a liberal victory this time around than the last time. this is a president as jake notes having covered him who explicitly ran on i will raise taxes. that sunk walter mondale in 1984. he ran on we need more regulation on the environment and financial -- he explicitly

ran on supporting gay marriage and cutting defense and he won. somewhere george mcgovern is smiling in all of this. >> okay. i want to head over for a minute. top question to jonathan karl. the president has won. does nancy pelosi stay? >> well, this is the big question. she stayed last time to try to get control of the house back for democrats. my sense is that nancy pelosi is very likely to decide to retire. if people close to her said if romney had won she might have stayed for that fight but now that she did not win back the house, the president's -- president obama is back at the white house, i would be very surprised if nancy pelosi stays in the house. >> a very good chance of that. out to bill weir right now. bill? >> reporter: oh, hi, george. yeah, we're just waiting for some movement from mitt romney. we understand that he has not

yet called the president to concede. he may be still working on his speech but hasn't made a move yet to come to the convention hall. we understand paul ryan is here. we've seen members of his family but what a roller-coaster ride for his supporters, for his donors in this hall tonight. there was such a sense of defeat initially when fox news called ohio for barack obama, but then karl rove came on, started hedging, said it still was in play and people flooded the room and cheers went out handing o out american flags but as the math sunk in all that desflated and have seen children crying and a lot of hugs here tonight as they come to grips with the end of a hard-fought campaign. >> okay, bill weir, thank you very much. i want to go back to cokie roberts as jon karl was saying talking about nancy pelosi, the end of if she, indeed, does choose to retire as the democratic leader, the end of some career. >> an incredible career. she came to congress and having

been told by the congresswoman who she replaced on her deathbed she said, nancy, you run for this seat and she did and, of course, rose in the ranks in the house and put together a remarkable majority for a period there and as the first female speaker, you know, you forget that speaker of the house is a constitutional office, i mean, she is after the vice president, next in line to the president, so it is a very powerful position and one that she really felt strongly was important and important barrier to have broken for a woman when she was -- when she took the gavel the first time she had all the children come up onto the dais and be surrounded by children to talk about the future particularly for girls, so she has been a very tough political operative and a very successful one

mostly, that loss of the house in 2010 was a huge blow. >> let's keep in mind there was a lot -- held them together to pass health care since the 1940s. >> i have a projection as george predicted. can't even get my music anymore but i have a prediction -- projection here. colorado has gone to barack obama and i know, barbara, you wanted to weigh in. >> and i've been talking to a few people who might have wanted to run themselves and i'll give you their views. i just talked to newt gingrich. let me read my notes. he said there's a new house and a new senate but the same president. what do we do now? how are we going to function as a country? we are so divided and this was not a clear election. he said, we have two fundamental bodies, the house and the president, though the big question is will the president try to make his peace with the republicans or will he say, i won again so i don't have to? and then he said, i don'ty that we can solve the problems of the

country the way we have been. we need different innovations and a whole new educational policy and a whole new generation of solutions and then i said, well, do you think had you gotten the nomination that you would have won and he said, i don't know, but i would have had much more -- much different solutions. i also talked to rudy giuliani who you know around four years ago has been campaigning all over the place for mitt romney, but he didn't really want anything out of this but he could have been, what, attorney general, maybe ambassador to italy, so i'm sure he's disappointed. and somebody who probably is not is mayor bloomberg who four years ago would not take a position and remained neutral until after hurricane sandy and then said, i'm going to go with obama because we need to focus

on climate change so all of these people have been affected. some are happy and some, as you heard -- >> from the mayor. thank you, barbara. what's coming up on social media. >> we talked a lot and heard a lot about the gender gap in the weeks preceding this election and, of course, tonight we talked a lot about it. but if barack obama, president obama were to sing any song tomorrow morning it might be "all the single ladies" by beyonce because single women are the fastest growing demographic in this country. they now make up a quarter of the voting age population. the romney camp, as we know, thought that the economy would trump social issues but, of course, the obama campaign kept talking about this war against women that the romney campaign was waging, so i asked women tonight who they voted for and many of the responses seemed to indicate that reproductive rights were a big motivating factor. for example, gail from virginia, not taking a chance of roe vs. wade being overturned voted for

obama. katie, i voted for obama because he supports women's reproductive rights and will not set women back 50 years and finally leslie says i think equal pay for equal work is the most pressing issue for women this election. what do you think? i'll get back to you on that. this is referring to the 2009 lilly ledbetter fair pay act and i know, diane, you spoke to governor romney about this. he said while he didn't support it at the time, if he were elected he would not repeal it. but that lack of support, i think, did influence a number of women out there. >> yes, and then ultimately he wouldn't tell me. he would not say whether he, indeed, would have signed it if it came to his desk. i don't believe he ever said he would have signed it if it came to his desk. so, cokie, on this issue of the single ladies out there and other women -- what do you think? >> i'm certainly seeing single ladies being overwhelmingly for president obama as they were four years ago and there's no real falloff there, but i was

just looking to see if we had a number on that abortion question to see if that seems to be the indicator. the problem is people tend to say when you ask about, you know, what is the most important issue, they say the economy, of course. but so the issue then is if there's something in the ether of a candidate that makes it uncomfortable. >> 17 women currently serving in the united states senate. even with the retirement of olympia snowe and kay bailey hutchison. tammy baldwin, deb fischer in nebraska and still waiting to hear in terms of hawaii, nevada and north dakota. a record number of women will be serving in the united states senate this year. >> we got to take a quick break, we do. we'll be back. governor romney, president obama, both expected to speak.

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in american politics, only alaska is still voting. let's go back to matthew dowd, so, matt, something you're seeing that amazed or surprised you. >> on the races unfolded to a large degree much as we expected it to and much of the polling, we still have a situation where mitt romney is leading the national popular vote by 100,000 votes. as more votes come in, we'll see that but we not only as we've talked about have a divided electorate but those who voted against the president -- we talked about this before. >> one of the other things we saw from our exit poll is 91% of president obama's supporters thought he would win. 71% of governor romney's supporters thought he would win and that is -- speaks to the whole idea that people are living in their own cocoons

getting information from probably a partisan source that reinforces what they feel already makes it much harder to bridge these divides. >> that's what -- what this country has become, even though it's more diverse and more heterogeneous it's become less tolerant of other people's opinions. people are associating amongst more people that are like them politically and culturally and i'm getting information much more in tune with where they are, they create their own reality so what we now have in america is two americas that basically tonight before tonight was over both thought they were going to win. >> yes, but i want to just point out one thing, 55% of the overall voters thought president obama was going to win. we've seen that's one of the best prognosticators of who actually wins because everyone is a little individual polling unit. however they think internal naturally inside their homes when they go into the greater world they're very good pollers out there. >> they're a better judge of what their neighbor will be than

what themselves are going to do. to have the divides in the election will make it very difficult as jonathan karl said, the huge shaissues we face, how we solve them. >> better prognosticator than my grandfather with the gourds that he grew. >> we'll find out other ways of prognostication. speeches from both candidates, president obama has been re-elected. we'll hear from him when we come back and also governor mitt romney, waiting to hear from him. virginia and florida still out.

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and we are back here in times square, crossroads of america. president has been re-elected and waiting to hear from him and from governor romney. i want to show tape of an interview that our friend and colleague robin roberts of "good morning america" did with president obama just a few months ago. the interview where he came out and spoke in favor for the first time and endorsed the idea of gay marriage and matthew dowd, let me come to you about this. i remember working for president clinton more than a decade ago, there was no way a democrat would endorse gay marriage.

barack obama was against it then. he came out and endorsed it and this presidential campaign, the dog that didn't bark. it didn't seem to draw any fire at all. >> i think it did bark in which it barked against the republicans in this because i think what's happened and the transformation on these cultural issues over the last 0 years which used to be an advantage for republicans and the wedge issues that they provided, abortion choice, gay marriage now, have now become majority of the country issues which is why voters under 40 years old have no concept about where the republican party is on these issues and disconnected from a big part of the country. >> we'll have a big conversation about the republican party's need to appeal to hispanic voters, we need to have a conversation about appealing to the majority of this country, women. women are put off by the whole debate over abortion rights. women, even pro-life women are comfortable with pro-choice leaders because choice doesn't mean you're for abortion but for

choice. it will we can look women in the eye enand have respect for pro-choice republican women as pro-choice republican women are always forced to have pro-life we will be nowhere. >> george, let me bring this to you, the social issue of abortion and gay marriage, the other group they'll have to reach out are young people and on this issue of gay marriage when you come out against it it's almost like you're speaking another language. >> that's true. with young people being gay is like being left-handed, it's boring. they don't understand the issue. i think events will be important here. let's not lose sight of the fact it was slower than the year before, events are more important than these other issues, furthermore on the issue of abortion, opinion has been moving to where the republican

party is. on parental notification, late-term abortions, public funding, the only issues that are really public policy issues, the public is there now, driven in part by improved sonograms, science has come in to complicate the thinking about abortion. >> but if this is where the debates are, the actual policy debates are -- this is where they are in the states. but the tone and the language, you still have republican -- major party candidates talking about rape. i mean you still have language from the republican leaders that is so disconnected from where most women see and feel about these issues. >> i just want -- it is probably easier to be pro-choice in a republican party than to be pro-life in the democratic party? >> we have a lot of pro-life democrats. >> barbara, you want to weigh in? >> yeah, i do. it is an amazing statistic that 50% of the births in this

country are births that were not wanted even with birth control pills and pregnancies that were unintended and we did not talk very much about the supreme court and what would have happened if it had been mitt romney, who was going to be able to perhaps choose supreme court justices. four of them are over the age of 70, ruth bader ginsburg is 79. stephen breyer, 74 and he probably in his term would have been -- would have chosen a supreme court justice so you would think we're at the stage now where birth control and that women -- it is not the issue that we would have expected, but it still is. >> a lot of muttering on this side of the room from my team of analysts looking at all this data. now, you see a sea change. >> certainly on gay marriage. i think we ought to stop and look at this because it is extraordinary.

we have never had a state -- have a referendum that approved gay marriage. any time it's gone to a state referendum it -- go happened in maine tonight. >> it's happened in maine tonight. >> and it appears to be happening in the states where -- that already have legal gay marriage where it's been put on the ballot to see if the voters as a whole approve of it and they appear to be approving of it, and so this is in four states so this is absolutely extraordinary and it is a change that's happened in hardly any time whatsoever where people went from saying it was a terrible idea to a majority of people now supporting gay marriage in this country and that is really something -- >> the red states/blue states -- after the 18 we talked on the blue wall, democratic since '92, i think 13 or 14 of them will have civil union or gay marriage

where virtually every red state -- another way to think of it where president obama moved on gay marriage is what he did on contraception and the health care plan legalizing d.r.e.a.m. act students administratively, took a serious of positions on non-economic issues to mobilize and energize his new collision understanding it would compound his problem with blue collars and whites in a way others had not been willing to do. >> jon karl, all actions he took by executive order because he had to get around congress. >> exactly, exactly. when you come to the gay marriage, one of those was ahead of the curve was dick cheney, who, you know, running in 2000 in his debate against joe lieberman made it clear he disagreed with president bush on gay marriage. >> victorious, we had the support of the naacp for the first time in its 100-year history. the naacp came out in support of gay marriage.

julian bond, church leaders, civic leaders, union leaders so i thought it was a really broad collision for equality. >> a lot of flags waving in chicago. the excitement is building for barack obama. jake tapper? >> reporter: good evening, george. that's right. many people are enthusiastic here as some other networks declared one of the few remaining states. it is certainly possible, it has not yet happened but certainly possible as you noted that the only state to have flipped will be indiana from obama to the republican party. that has not yet happened, but it does look like it sounds like it's possible that president obama could win at least two if not all three of the remaining big states, big battleground states. but i wanted to touch on the -- an issue you were talking about a few minutes ago about the popular vote, mitt romney leads in the popular vote even if president obama has an electoral victory win.

i spoke with david plouffe, the president's senior political poobah as president obama refers to him about had issue during the campaign, a few days ago, what happens if that is actually the result, president obama wins the key battleground states and becomes re-elected but does not win the popular vote. plouffe had a couple of answers, certainly it's not unprecedented. what happened in 2000. george w. bush won the electoral vote but lost the popular vote by 500,000 votes to vice president al gore but beyond that plouffe said these are the rules and this is how we play, by the rules. we could go to new york and california and drum up more votes, i guess, but that's not the rules of the game and related it in an interesting way to the 2008 democratic primary and the fact that hillary clinton would focus on the big primary states like new jersey while then senator obama's campaign would go to the smaller populationwise smaller states

like idaho and he got a victory there and end up basically with the same results winning ten delegates while senator clinton spent a lot more money and made a bigger effort and had the same result. these are the rules and we're abiding by the rules. ultimately it's a game, a race to 270 electoral votes. that said we still don't know the popular vote yet. >> we don't and they may get the best of both worlds. there was a little bit of a flip. president obama has now jumped ahead in the popular vote by a very small margin, only 21,000 votes. still very close and it will go right down to the wire. >> i think north carolina also flipped to add in there. >> right. >> okay, good, i love correcting that. of the room, i just want to say of the room we're looking at just a memory, down memory lane, four years ago, 240,000 people by estimates crowded grant park

to celebrate the first victory of barack obama. tonight we think there are about 20,000 in the room but they're a raucous group. >> to david muir at romney headquarters to get a sense of what's going on there. anywhere yet on a phone call to the president? >> reporter: you know, at last check he hadn't called the president yet. as i mentioned earlier there was some talk about whether there would be any contesting of the election and heard from a key romney surrogate that's not at all what's going on but a delay as we wait for the governor. george, as you can imagine, there's going to be monday morning quarterbacking here about the campaign. were there things they could have done better along the way. governor romney was asked about that today. he said there probably were mistakes made, we're human but he said this is one campaign where there weren't many reports of in-fighting. i kept the same team. he threw everything on the field. put everything on the field, left nothing in the locker room and i think he'll remember election day as having gone to

ohio and pennsylvania in the end, two last-ditch efforts to troy and get the vote. one thing he was surprised by over the length of the campaign he wasn't as tired as he thought he would be. he said he was remarkably energized even on the sort of battleground blitz tours that they both were taking these final days saying the people in many roos like this one really energized him and one last thought, i'm going to be watching tonight on this stage, not only the governor but ann romney right next to him. she has been by his side this entire campaign and into the final days when they could have divided and conquered she was with him at these campaign stops and i won't forget sitting down with the governor. we had four sit-downs with him but there was one in particular overseas, it was some tough headlines for him but a question of ann putting a prayer inside the wailing wall and i asked the governor if he had a moment with his wife that they discussed their prayers and he lit up and he said we actually took a moment. we put our blessings together. we crafted them together and

shared them with one another then we went down to the western wall and it was a moment where he really broke through and t s that's not been questioned by anyone, the depth of the relationship between mitt and ann romney. she's been there for him. in all the testimonials, how he's been her rock and i'll watch her closely because in these waning days of the campaign it's been ann romney who started to become a little emotional about the support she was seeing in these final days for people who were really hoping they were going to pull this off, george and diane. >> you talk about the energy he reflected, that governor romney reflected, he was bounding through those final events drawing huge crowds. but i wonder, you know, you were with him every single day along the way. did he really know what was happening? did he really, really deeply believe he was going to win or did he just feel this was the important thing, the right way for him to go out? >> reporter: i think, george, he thought he had a real shot at it. i do believe he sinced momentum.

this has been such a roller-coaster ride, this campaign, you know, late summer early fall there was that videotape where he made a comment about the 47% and that probably was the lowest point as a correspondent covering the campaign and looking at the advisers and taking the temperature of the room, they knew they had a problem on their hands with that tape and then shortly thereafter was that first debate, they had even prepped going into that debate with help from senator rob portman to take a question or to take incoming fire from president obama about the 47% and it never even came up in the first debate, as you'll remember. there was a lot of criticism about whether or not the president came to play at that debate. where was he and it gave mitt romn present himself in a much different light from the ads that had been seen in many of these battleground states and after that the campaign really sensed momentum. there was flag football on a beach in florida where the press had been invited. it was a surprise moment where the governor came out and you

could see in their faces after the first debate there was real momentum and i think there will be a lot of talk looking back in these final days about hurricane sandy and that moment where president obama was given an opportunity to go to new jersey, to look presidential and, of course, stand beside chris christie. there will be a lot of talk about that whether or not that halted the momentum once and for all, any momentum he had. but it's been up and down and a roller-coaster ride and i believe in the end the governor and ann romney thought they had momentum and were hoping they would be able to pull it off. >> we are getting ready to hear from governor romney any minute now so let's take a break. we'll be right back with that. last thanksgiving, about 2 million people tried to deep-fat-fry their turkey.

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>> announcer: live from times square in new york city, election night 2012. here again, diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos. >> and you see that crowd there in times square right there. president obama has been re-elected but, diane, the margin got bigger for president obama. we can project he won the state of virginia and his 13 electoral votes. 5-49 for president obama. donna brazile, this is a sweet

one for the president and it seems a triumph of organizations and one more symbol of a truly changing america. >> no question about it. when i heard the campaign was going to spend a great deal of its time expanding the ground game from 2008, i kept saying to myself, why? and they said, no, we're going to increase the number of organizers, put more field officers in and over the last two weeks they opened up 5,100 more satellite campaign headquarters. clearly it paid off tonight. >> i want to turn to nicolle, if i can. you've been there for losing candidates so many times and i know -- [ laughter ] >> not so many times. i retract. i retract. >> one party that looked like jake's. one party that looked like david's. >> let me go back to john mccain, if i can. because we know one candidate 30

years later was asked how long does it take to get over losing, he said i'll let you know. >> john mccain -- on a serious note john mccain viewed his concession speech the night that he conceded to barack obama, i think, as one of the most important speeches certainly of that candidacy. >> it was a beautiful speech. >> and there may not be much that mitt romney wanted to emulate when it came to the campaign that john mccain and sarah palin ran but if there's a moment he should strive to do half as well as john mccain it's when he conceded the election to barack obama. >> vice president gore in 2000 got accolades for the way he conceded in 2000. george will, picking up on what's happening in virginia. one of the things we saw in virginia but across many states, ohio, virginia, and wisconsin, republican governors in states that were doing pretty well better on unemployment than the rest of the country but barack obama wins them. >> the states are doing well on the republican governors were bashful about saying they were doing well because they were

doing well because they had republican governors and that was their theory but couldn't promote themselves without mixing up the message of the romney campaign and that's just tough. >> we're still waiting to see what happens in florida, the same results that happened in florida across the board, states doing better and makes perfect sense. the states where unemployment was going down, president obama did well. >> we said -- >> virginia, i mean, talk about encapsulating the republican problem. barack obama wins only 38% of white voters and wins the state. there are so many places that have been brought into play by changing topography and now well for -- >> want to go back to jake tapper. we have heard that president obama has received a phone call from mitt romney? >> reporter: that's right, george. abc news can report that mitt romney has called president obama and conceded defeat. the two men congratulated each

other, the president congratulated mitt romney on a battle well fought, but, yes, mitt romney has officially conceded and we expect to hear from him in the next few minutes, george. back to you in new york. >> he has already driven up to the headquarters where he is going to speak tonight, david muir, the crowd ready? >> reporter: the crowd is ready. they are chanting mitt, mitt and we can see the senior staff gathered in the wings here and in the last 24 to 48 hours in the final sprint we were really traveling with all the senior staff on the plane, eric, sue, some of the names deep into the political world, beth myers helped do a search for paul ryan, the vp search cha chose paul ryan. he arrived sometime before the governor arrived. the hotel they were staying at is attached to the convention center. i expect he was working on the concession speech. one thing he did say earlier when talking about how he hadn't

thought about the other speech, only wrote a victory speech he didn't share it with his top advisers, with ann. something he was going to do anyway and i suspect they were putting on the finishing touches and calling the president. >> what i keep thinking about is seven years, basically, he's been on this quest and as we remember when he went up to the debates every night, he would write on the podium, first word, dad. >> his father, of course, ran for president, was governor of michigan, ran for president back in 1968 was forced out of the race after making an unfortunate comment about being brainwashed by the generals in vietnam. it's been a long journey, matthew dowd, for mitt romney. but i wonder after the seven years has he left any stamp on the republican party? >> none, no stamp on the republican party and i think the republican party, this loss wasn't really about mitt romney really fundamentally, this loss again was about the republican party and mitt romney ran a race

that was not great but good enough. he raised a lot ofman and campaigned like the dickens through the whole course of this thing but when it's all said and done because of the changing nature of the country in the republican party comes up with an excuse it was mitt romney's excuse and don't look at themselves and say what are we going to do to adapt to the 21st century of america they are going to be a minority party. >> recrimination is a part of american politics and will begin in earnest tomorrow amongst the republicans. there is in the republican party a divide and that there are libertarian republicans associated with free markets and all the rest, minimal government and then the social conservatives and that's the first of many civil wars will be over that. >> and the issue of spending, as well and the issue of -- mitt romney is backstage right now. we're likely to hear from him momentarily and will speak in a few minutes.

>> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome governor mitt romney. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you. thank you. thank you, my friends. thank you so very much. thank you. [ cheers and applause ] thank you. thank you. i have just called president obama to congratulate him on his victory, his supporters and his campaign also deserve congratulations. i wish all of them well but particularly the president, the first lady and their daughters.

this was a time of great challenges for america and i pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation. [ applause ] >> i want to thank paul ryan for all that he has done for our campaign. [ cheers and applause ] and for our country. besides my wife, ann, paul is the best choice i've ever made. [ applause ] and i trust that his intellect and his hard work and his commitment to principle will continue to contribute to the good of our nation. [ applause ] i also want to thank ann, the love of my life. [ cheers and applause ] she would have been a wonderful first lady. she's --

[ cheers and applause ] >> she has been that and more to with her compassion and her care. i thank my sons for their tireless work on behalf of the campaign and thank their wives and children for taking up the slack as their husbands and dads have spent so many weeks away from home. [ applause ] i want to thank matt rhodes and the dedicated campaign he led. [ cheers and applause ] they have made an extraordinary effort not just for me but also for the country that we love. and to you here tonight and to the team across the country, the volunteers, the fund-raisers, the donors, the surrogates, i don't believe that there's ever been an effort in our party that can compare with what you have done over these past years. thank you so very much. [ cheers and applause ]

thanks for all the hours of work, for the call, for the speeches and appearances for the resources and for the prayers, you gave deeply from yourselves and performed magnificently and you inspired us and you humbled us. you've been the very best we could have imagined. the nation, as you know, is at a critical point. at a time like this we can't risk partisan bickering and political posturing. our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the people's work and we citizens also have to rise to the occasion. we look to our teachers, professors we count on you not just to teach but to inspire our children with a passion for learning and discovery and look to our pastors and priests and rabbis and counselors of all kinds to testify of the enduring principles upon which our society is built, honesty, charity, integrity and family. we look to our parents for the final analysis everything

depends on the success of our homes. we look to job creator of all kinds, we're counting on you to invest, to hire, to step forward and we look to democrats and republicans in government at all levels to put the people before the politics. i believe in america. i believe in the people of america. [ cheers and applause ] [ cheers and applause ] >> and i ran for office because i'm concerned about america. this election is over, but our principles endure. i believe that the principles upon which this nation was founded are the only sure guide to a resurgent economy and to a new greatness.

like so many of you, paul and i have left everything on the field. we have given our all to this campaign. [ cheers and applause ] field, we have given our all to this campaign. [ cheers and applause ] i so wish -- i so wish that i had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead the country in a different direction, but the nation chose another leader. so ann and i join with you to earnestly pray for him and for this great nation. thank you and god bless america! you guys are the best! thank you so much! [ cheers and applause ] thank you! thanks, guys! >> governor romney, his wife, son tagg, paul ryan coming up on

stage. >> a gracious subdued speech. >> he said he believes in america and offers his prayers to president obama. time for the entire country to do what they could to put aside partisan bickering and political posturing. as barbara pointed out earlier, the last speech of his political career, no doubt for mitt romney. >> the man on stage with him, paul ryan the he will be going back to the house. he got re-elected to the house tonight. i want to go to john karl, governor romney hug his sons and grandchildren. paul ryan does have a feature, he has been re-elected. people looking to him as leader of the party. >> paul ryan has a future. this will not be blamed on him. big thing with paul ryan, was it a risk because of the ryan and the changes proposed to medicare. it turned out if you looked at

florida, romney won seniors in florida, mediscare tactics didn't work. paul ryan emerges as a bigger leader in defeat than before mitt romney chose him. an interesting footnote on this, george, in paul ryan's own district, of course, he was re-elected easily. a significant number of people in his district voted for barack obama as president as the they were voting to sending paul ryan to the house i you look at rock county, wisconsin, the home of janesville, paul ryan's hometown. generations of ryian ryans. barack obama won janesville, with 60% of the vote. >> the auto plant that closed. >> have to say, george, i think it was kind of mercy not to see mrs. romney standing there for long. she came out, and she, so used to seeing the suffering of the wives, who have been on these

long quests too, and she got to come out. >> gave him a hug and walk off the stage. >> and walk off the stage. >> you were there for sarah palin, from all the accounts, she was pushing hard to give a speech. >> paul ryan trying to give a speech tonight. and no. we actually have now an heir apparent. the republican party has at least one leader. and the republican primary really does begin in earnest today. you know after midnight. and we're off to the races. you will start hearing a lot of people championing their particular horses for the next race. which sadly for everyone who is tired of politics, it starts today. >> george, you mentioned, senator marco rubio of florida. >> marco rubio, governor martinez, new mexico, hispanic leaders will be consulted.

asian-american community is rapidly growing, prosperous one the republican party will compete for. the party is going to do some soulsearching. but the election results tonight are really clear and structured as what they need to search their souls about. >> matt dowd, write the president's speech for us. what does he have to do to overcome this divided nation when everyone wakes up tomorrow morning? >> first thing he has to do, admit this is not a huge victory. admit he has got to do a job and admit to the reality of a divide in the country and maybe even admit that what he ran on in 2008 he wasn't able to accomplish bringing the country together and facing the problem right away. i think he has to go to congress within the next few days and say we have got to solve the problems. i am welling illing to sit down.

he has to do that up front and center in the speech. >> he certainly will do that by the end of the week. we expect him to hit the notes. what if heave do doesn't find a partner? >> you can force somebody if you keep doing it. one of the things, president obama, did it well, did photo-ops, never did it consistently. fault president obama for that. never did it consistently. republicans didn't get along. yes they fought him. never pushed them on it. i think he has an opportunity -- a window -- having won, not huge. saying i am willing to give. i want to be leader of the country. not leader of my party. and meet them. >> he has, signalled in the final days, leading to election day that he did want to address three big issues, the budget, all the big budget and debt problems, number two, imgrigs e immigrati immigration, and three, climate change. >> the budget will test the republicans. there is a deal to be had. everybody knows what it looks

like, will house republicans bring it forward. on immigration, 65% in our poll said allow a movement, including, half of mitt romney voters. will republicans move after tonight when the hispanic vote is critical in defeat. >> quickly before the president comes out. a picture the white house released. president obama, vice president joe biden embracing after they were declared winners and there you have dr. jill biden and michelle obama as well. >> watch it on tv in the suite. go back to the hall in chicago right now. the crowd is getting very revved up. video of president obama on the screen. jake tapper, what else are you seeing? >> right now we have to say, they're clearly getting ready for the president to come out. remarks were put out the they are running as they have been for several hours now, these videos that have been a very popular part of the obama campaign. with supporters.

they have been, running them. this of course is the famous fired up, ready to go speech, which president obama likes to tell at the end of his campaigns. he did it in 2008. he did, guess, last night in des moines, possible that was last night. last night in des moines he told the story about a little old lady at a campaign stop during desperate time for his campaign. and you hear president obama chanting, fired up, ready to go. the crowd very excited. a smaller cr eer crowd than we d to. >> president obama expected to come out. >> now, look at this. >> george, they're raising the curtains of course, a whole bunch of people there, in the stand behind me. president obama will come out any minute. [ cheers and applause ] >> he will be surrounded by supporters when he comes out to take the podium. what do you think the president

should say? >> first of all i think the president is going to talk to the country. he is going to talk about coming together to advance the common good. we have work to do. let's roll up our sleeves. i am ready to work. with the republicans. i am willing to help bring the country together. i think a very conciliatory message. i also think it is an evening to celebrate. the president some things he is proud of, things he did in the first term that i think most americans who voted for him would like him to emphasize again tonight. >>ten about his team also there on that stage as they engineered this amazing term. >> two victories for president obama. have to say. go back to jake tapper on this. we heard about the ups and downs. this time from inside the white house, steady throughout, never

seen to doubt victory, small victory. and never seemed to doubt it was possible. from what you can tell inside the inner circles did that change after the first debate? >> they were worried after the first debate. we saw there was an effect. not just -- on -- on independent voters in many polls. but on democrats, a demoralization. donors were concerned, activists were concerned. we heard on the campaign trail, bruce springsteen was concerned. he talked about how he was a little freaked out. robert gibbs, talking to him earlier, the president's former aide and former press secretary. he was called in to talk to president obama and do the gibbs' thing, which is to kind of pick and push him up. getting the president's head back in the game.

gibbs said he didn't need to do it. president obama realized what happened after the first debate. he got himself back where he needed to be. so there was -- serious concerns, and anxiety, the campaign was so expertly run and expertly designed. it was able to with stand a mistake by the candidate himself. the campaign was -- was just, i mean it has to go down, as one of the most perfect campaigns in political history. if you think about the fact. >> actually the campaign manager. and donna, talked about this, the architect of this field organization, this internet digital organization, that found brand new ways. revolutionary new ways to can tact people and get them to vote. >> incredible operation, george. it's look they understood what -- what, what tv shows you watched, what magazines you subscribe to, they reach you on your text phone, reach you at

the shopping center. people were inundated with texts all the time. incredible operation. i think it is going to take years for the republicans to catch up with the technology the democrats have put together to reach their voters and find new voters. >> i don't think their problem is technology. i think it will take them a team to get a grasp upon really what the state of the country looks like. what it looks like. how far their policy and their leaders are divorced from what the country is and what the state of the country is. >> george, when you talk about president obama. we wait to hear his speech. he made history four years ago. clearly makes history again by getting re-elected. of course, this is only going to be the very beginning of his second term. can he earn a place among the very top tier? >> i think he wants to. i think he wants to be on the mount rushmore of liberalism.

and he has made a good start on that. with the extraordinary health care legislation which -- essentially, nationalizes 1% of the economy. an enormous achievement. >> it will not be repealed. >> very difficult to unwind this after it begins to kick in in 2014. in that regard he has already done that. the question is what else does he want? assumption seems to be he wants to play nicely with republicans if i don't think he came to washington to shrink the government, cut entitlements or change the trajectory that franklin roosevelt or lyndon johnson put the country on. >> barbara? >> as we get to the end of the evening. talk about mrs. obama and what happens to her in the next four years. she has done a wonderful job of bringing up the two girls allowing them to have a private life. malia is 14.

sasha, 11. in four years, malia will be going off to college. they're going to have to face her dating, which is going to be very difficult i think for the president. she is going to get a driver's license. and mrs. obama has got to decide what her project are going to be for the next four years. it has to go beyond, moving on and obesity. spent a great deal of time with veterans and their families. and afghanistan now, becoming, more, and more in the past. she has to fiend new project, nw determination and new life for herself. she said very clearly she does not want a political career in four years. she doesn't have the patience. she has a great opportunity to do some wonderful things. >> the president, by the way, i interviewed him after the first debate. he said two things. he said that malia will learn to drive. he has promised her. and i am not sure he was entirely happy with all of my

questions about that first debate, i have to say he had an unbelievable confidence. he always says, i don't get that high, i don't get that low. and in that moment, you could see it. you could see it. he was not going to go with all of the people who thought that he had just handed the election to governor romney. >> a very steady team all the way. they reflected their boss in that respect. they did not get shaken. >> the first debate, really kind of crystallized the question you are asking here today. the issue out of the debate wondering what is barack obama burning to do in a second term? he was passionate about blocking the ryan budget converting medicare into a voucher, and medicaid, defending health care. what is it that he want to achieve in a second term? he laid out. budget deal. immigration. we'll see what the passion is that is more than defensive, defending what he did in the first term. >> let's be clear.

those were not the issues he ran on. if you look at what they did. they won every state they went after with the exception of the state of north carolina. they did that with a barrage of negative attack ad against mitt romney. this was a relentlessly negative campaign. set out to destroy the republican nominee and make him not to be -- a, a, satisfactory alternative. it worked. >> determined to make it a choice, and defy the change, mitt romney would bring. we'll take a quick break. when we come back, president obama. >> announcer: election night, 2012, "your voice, your vote." brought to you by red lobster. clearest water. c, we find the best, sweetest crab for red lobster that we can find. [ male announcer ] hurry in to red lobster's crabfest! the only time of year you can savor 5 succulent crab entrees, all under 20 dollars. like a half-pound of tender snow crab paired with savory grilled shrimp, just 12.99. or our hearty crab and roasted garlic seafood bake.

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>> announcer: "your voice, your vote," election night 2012. once again, diane sawyer, and george stephanopoulos. good evening, once again from the city that never sleeps. and it is proving it tonight. as they stand out in the cold in times square. in front of our election headquarters. we are hearing, we are minutes away from the president. >> let's take a look at where we stand. president obama has been re-elected. 303 electoral votes. pulled ahead in the popular vote as well ahead of mitt romney. still tied 49-49. the big state, we are waiting for, the state of florida, too close to call right now.

see what we have here. pull up the map. 50 for president obama. 49 for romney. leading with 92% of the vote. as we wait for the president, matthew dowd, a decisive, decisive victory for the president. though the popular vote is close. >> a close, close win but convincing win. convincing electoral college win. i think that the way the map unfolded tonight. is exactly what they had conveyed to many people how they thought it would. their theory of the race. turnout. how the dynamics worked. it unfolded in almost exactly the way they thought. >> nicole wallace reading an e-mail from covering the romney campaign talking senior staffersen tears astaffers in tears and shaking, unable to stop. they were convinced they had a shot in the final days. >> the beginning of september

when stories begin to break about disarray in their campaign. i talked to senior leaders of the campaign. i said things look pretty bad, don't they? they said i still think we are probably going to win. they never lost, i think, that belief system. let me say there is a whole lot of red on that map. a whole lot of people in this country did vote for mitt romney. barack obama would be foolish to ignore almost half of the country that thought mitt romney would make a superb president, a better president than him. elections are always a choice between two men. neither one of these men really led a discussion about the future. no one tomorrow morning has any idea what barack obama has in store for us. because there was never a debate. neither man really tried to win the future. >> and nicole, barack obama didn't compete in indiana, missouri, home state of louisiana. they competed in the so-called battleground states. that's where the message was. >> texas and louisiana too.

>> george bush took office when he -- >> get over it! jeez, louise, you won tonight. >> he won. it was a very -- >> seriously. president obama over 300 electoral vote. it's not a big thing. >> tip is a divided country. all most half the country voted for mitt romney. >> we were divided ten years ago, and ten years from now. the country is settled into this path. we need a leader who can bring us together. i think that leader is barack obama. >> donna, it is a huge victory. no question. look at the electoral count. what did the president campaign on in the battleground states? >> nothing. >> this was a negative campaign. >> like seinfeld. campaign about nothing. >> it was a huge victory. on the other hand, the last time a president was re-elected with the smaller share in a popular

vote than in the first election, andrew jackson. 1838. when he won, in 2008, he had groups growing behind him, the minority population. upscale whites, young people. all basically stuck with him. he lost more ground among the rest of the white population. so you are in a situation where democrats clearly have a demographic upper hand. >> i do want to go back to, you bring that up, on one hand, part of the reason that president obama won by so much in '08, elected on the heels of a massive economic crisis. part of the reason his numbers were held down, this time around is there is still so much economic discontent out there. that shows up in the polling, gary. >> that's right. barack obama had one big thing working against him in the election. three things working for im. working against him, the economy. this is not the kind of economy in which he gets re-elected. face it.

how did he turn it around? the fact it is improving however slowly. two, the fact that mitt romney couldn't close the deal on the, on the notion he could do better. third, the fact that barack obama followed george w. bush, who got the blame for the economy. those three things enabled him to skirt past that, iron gate of economic discontent threatening his second term. >> did he secure some kind of cultural change? did he secure it for all times? >> no, i don't think so. i think the country is in a cultural change. as we have talked about all night. an important thing to talk about. but he still has the to convince people that he has got a program that he is going forward with. we have to see what it is. one thing i do think we should mention though is health care. of course that was his signature achievement or -- if you think can think of it as negative achievement. if that is your viewpoint. in his first term. and 59% of the people coming out

of the polls said that they, we should repeal, either some or all of it. that's not going to happen. it is not going to be repealed. it will go into effect. then people might decide they like it. >> what kind of a mandate, the president is elected to move forward now. he'll bring that to matthew dowd. venture one possibility is a mandate for his basic approach to the budget. one that include raising taxes on the wealthy and spending cuts. >> i don't think he has a mandate of any kind. i think he has a mandate to stay in the white house. that's what he got. he gets to keep his furniture there four more years. i think he has to be the president he promised us he would be four years ago. and he promised us he would be the president that united the country, that brought us together. divisive presidency end of bush's presidency.

many voted for barack obama to unite the country get past the divide. maybe he should go back and resay the speech he gave four years ago when he won. this time i am going to do it. >> his inaugural address where he promised end to childish things. went into the battle. stimulus, marched out we won, i won. my way or the highway. the way he campaigned was a lot better than the way he governed. >> there are two side of that. 60% voted in the exit poll, said raise taxes on people over $250,000 as part of the budget deal. republicans in the end, knowing barack obama re-elected willing to do that as we saw in '97 when the country sent back a democratic president, republican congress. they made a deal. will 2013 be 1997 or republicans cannot accept a deal that include what 60% of the voters said they were willing to do. >> mitch mcconnell, the minority leader in the senate, his number one objective was to make

president obama a one-term president. now that president obama has been re-elected. maybe he can get over that start working with the president so we can get things done in the senate. >> we are not able to project -- the next senator from the state of wisconsin. another hold for the democrats, john karl, and first openly gay senator. >> first openly gay united states senator. another seat republicans hoped they could win. tommy thompson. running against her. tammy baldwin was there. again, immediately take her place on the far left of the u.s. senate. >> this means we will have 19 women in the united states senate. a new high. 19%. because -- she becomes the 18th. in hawaii, two women running against each other. one of them, also -- of the,

additional one. >> the senate story tonight is extraordinary. >> entirely possible -- win in north dakota. right now running ahead. >> from where we started. democrats, 23 seats. republicans only 10. democrats to be in this position. again, we will see the senate divided almost exactly in half. the country divided almost in half. and can either side. does somebody give and agree to build a working majority for change in a country. >> worth pointing out. polls have closed in all 50 states. president obama won 25 states and d.c. governor romney won 23 states. two states not projected. florida and alaska. >> what are the numbers on the senate, john karl? >> right now the democrats have net gain of two of seats. two seats the republicans really hoped they're going to win. look where they stand now. don't know if you can see the board.

waiting for north dakota. solidly republican state. democratic seat they're hoping to pick up. right now, the democrat has a narrow lead over her opponent, the republican. and the other big state we are waiting for is montana. tester has got a big lead. it is possible that democrats could emerge with a net gad in two senate seats. >> everybody said this would unfold. vulnerable president of the united states. republicans thought they would beat him. he wins a convincingly victory tonight. in the senate, thought that they would take it back. done ape year ago. now may end up losing the seat to the house. if you lack at this crow-- if y look at this crowd. the first foray into double

digits ever. and the president won them 71, at this point to 27. >> wow. >> 71. >> 71. yes. that surpasses the 67%. four years ago. >> incredible indictment to reach out. and in many ways should be favorable. >> one of the things we saw, though nicole wallace. when he want to univision with our colleague, and pressed quite hard on immigration, faced that real anger in the hispanic community over failing to follow through on immigration reform. yet he still gets the kind of numbers. >> that's right. that's because the it is a choice. and the republican party it is worse. again, and unbelievable in that. think everyone who saw that. the univision anchor. pressed obama the way he hadn't been pressed on immigration.

he has not led. i worked for the last american president who used the power of the oval office to get things done with democrats and immigration reform. ronald reagan said, hispanics are republicans they just don't know it. to look how the republican party, almost collapsed. our next nominee can't be some one that supports self-deportation. >> you think? >> yeah. >> embrace sb-1070. they had marco rubio and joe arpaio, and it's not just immigration. voter id laws. hispanic, particularly in texas. found very, very offensive. and that was as well.

>> the country changed. this may be the last election we see two white men run against each other. so different than it was. the vast majority of the votes. hispanic the fastest rising population. two white men, maybe the last presidential race, two white men run against each other for president of the united states. >> biracial. >> we're all thinking -- >> he is so smart. >> go to jake tapper in chicago. >> i just want to make sure that everybody is clear on the fact that barack obama is not white. has that been established? i feel like you needed to come to me. i have this breaking news flash,

barack obama is african-american. if somebody could tell matt, that would be great. with the numbers it is stark. 71% latinos, voting for president obama. you had mitt romney without question, the most conservative republican on these immigration issues than i can remember. george w. bush, john mccain, ronald reagan signed into law 1987, amnesty it is referred to. mitt romney was very conservative on this issue. and my god, the obama campaign loved it. and during the only time that i saw any nervousness among obama senior staffers was when it looked like rick perry, before his campaign completely self-emulated, it looked like, rick perry governor of texas might be the nominee. they were going to have to reshuffle all their maps. not able to do all the get out the vote. and -- rely upon, latino votes in colorado, nevada, florida.

they were worried about that. of course it didn't work out. for enough gore perry for gover. and when they heard mitt romney, staking out the position on the far right for immigration. that made the obama campaign happy. they felt they would improve on 2008 numbers. absolutely they did. george. >> jake, hear the music wrapping up behind you. sure looks like the president is getting close. probably 15 second. based on what you are saying. are you confident the president sees, immigration reform for health care for the second term. >> immigration reform if he can get republicans, especially republicans who worked on the bill during the bush administration if he can get republicans on board, i think he sees immigration reform. and tax reform as issues where he is willing to work with

republicans. he does not see republicans as having been willing to work with him. and he is hoping as he puts it that the fever will break. that victory will mean the fever will break. republicans realizing they no longer, they can't defeat him. this is it. he has four years. that's it. can't defeat him again. maybe work with him on the issues. that is his perspective on his agenda. yes, immigration and tax reform. >> it will be fascinating to hear the president's speech after this long wait. i believe he did have two speeches. he is retooling it. and retooling it for this event tonight. the once and future president getting ready for his next four years. here he is. >> the president of the united states and the first family. [ cheers and applause ]

♪ signed sealed delivered i'm yours ♪ ♪ signed sealed delivered i'm yours ♪ ♪ oh yeah

[ cheers and applause ] ♪ signed sealed delivered i'm yours ♪ ♪ signed sealed delivered i'm yours ♪ [ cheers and applause ]

>> thank you. thank you. thank you so much. tonight more than 200 years after a former colony won the right to determine its own destiny, the task of perfecting our union moves forward.

it moves forward because of you. it moves forward because you reaffirmed the spirit that has triumphed over war and oppression, the spirit that has lifted this country from the depths of despair to the great heights of hope, the belief that while each of us will pursue our own individual dreams, we are an american family and we rise or fall together as one nation and as one group. [ cheers and applause ] tonight in this election, you, the american people, reminded us that while our road has been

hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back, and we know in our hearts that for the united states of america the best is yet to come. [ cheers and applause ] i want to thank every american who participated in this election. whether you voted for the very first time or waited in line for a very long time -- by the way, we have to fix that. [ cheers and applause ] whether you pounded the pavement or picked up the phone, whether

you held an obama sign or a romney sign, you made your voice heard. and you made a difference. i just spoke with governor romney and i congratulated him and paul ryan on a hard-fought campaign. we may have battled fiercely, but it is only because we love this country deeply, we care so strongly about its future. the romney family has chosen to give back to america through public service, that is a legacy that we honor and applaud tonight. [ cheers and applause ]

in the weeks ahead i also look forward to sitting down with governor romney to talk about where we can work together to move this country forward. i want to thank my friend and partner of the last four years, america's happy warrior, the best vice president anybody could ever hope for, joe biden! [ cheers and applause ] and i wouldn't be the man i am today without the woman who agreed to marry me 20 years ago. [ cheers and applause ] let me say this publicly, michelle i have never loved you more, i have never been prouder

to watch the rest of america fall in love with you too, as our nation's first lady. [ cheers and applause ] sasha and malia, before our very eyes, you're growing up to become two strong, smart, beautiful young women, just like your mom. and i am so proud of you guys, but i will say that for now, one dog is probably enough. to the best campaign team and volunteers in the history of politics -- [ cheers and applause ]

-- the best, the best ever. some of you were new this time around, and some of you have been at my side since the very beginning. but all of you are family. no matter what you do or where you go from here. you will carry the memory of the history we made together. and you will have the lifelong appreciation of a grateful president. thank you for believing all the way, through every hill, through every valley. you lifted me up the whole way. and i well alwa will always be for everything that you have done and all the incredible work that you have put in.

i know that political campaigns can some times seem small, even silly. and that provide plenty of fodder for the cynics who tell us that politics is nothing more than a contest of egos, or the dou domain of special interests. but if you ever get the chance to talk to folks who turned out at rallies, and crowded along a rope line in the high school m gym, you'll discover something else. you'll hear the determination in the voice of a young field organizer who is working his way through college and wants to make sure that every child has that same opportunity.

[ cheers and applause ] you'll hear the cry in the voice of a volunteer who is going door to door, because her brother was finally hired when the local auto plant added another shift. you'll hear the deep patriotism in the voice of a military spouse who is working the phones late at night to make sure that no one who fights for this country ever has to fight for a job or a roof over their head when they come home. [ cheers and applause ] that's why we do this. that's what politics can be. that's why elections matter. it's not small, it's big. it's important. democracy in a nation of 300

million can be noisy and messy and complicated. we have our own opinions. each of us has deeply held beliefs. and when we go through tough times, when we make big decisions as a country, it necessarily stirs passions, stirs up controversy, that won't change after tonight. and it shouldn't. these arguments we have are a mark of our liberty. we can never forget that -- as we speak, people in distant nations are risking their lives right now just for a chance to argue about the issues that matter. the chance to cast their ballots like we deid today. [ cheers and applause ]

but despite all our differences, most of us share certain hopes for america's future. we want our kids to grow up in a country where they have access to the best schools and the best teachers. a country that lives up to its legacy as the global leader in technology and discovery and innovation with all the good jobs and new businesses that follow. we want our children to live in america that isn't burdened by debt, that isn't weakened by inequality, that isn't threatened by the destructive power of the warming planet. we want to pass on a country that is safe and respected and admired around the world. a nation that is defended by the strongest military on earth, and

the best troops this, this world has ever known. [ cheers and applause ] but also a country that moves with confidence, beyond this tomb u time of war to shape a peace that is built on the promise of freedom and dignity for every human being. we believe in a generous america, in a compassionate america, in a tolerant america, open to the dreams of an immigrant's daughter who studies in our schools and pledges to our flag. to the young boy on the south side of chicago who sees a life beyond the nearest street corner. to the furniture worker's child in north carolina who wants to become a doctor or a scientist,

an engineer or entrepreneur, a diplomat or even a president. that's -- that's the future we hope for. that's the vision we share. that's where we need to go. forward. that's where we need to go. now we will disagree, some times fiercely, about how to get there. as it has for more than two centuries, progress will come in fits and starts. it is not always a straight line. it is not always a smooth path. by itself, the recognition that we have common hopes and dreams won't end all the gridlock or solve all our problems or substitute for the painstaking work of building consensus. and making the difficult compromises needed to move this country forward. but that common bond is where we

must begin. our economy is recovering. a decade of war is ending. a long campaign is now over. and whether i earned your vote or not, i have listened to you, i have learned from you, and you have made me a better president. and with your stories and your struggles i return to the white house more determined and more inspired than ever about the work there is to do and the future that lies ahead. [ cheers and applause ] tonight, you voted for action. not politics as usual.

you elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours. and in the coming weeks and months, i am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together. reducing our deficit, reforming our tax code, fixing our immigration system, freeing ourselves from foreign oil, we have got more work to do! but that doesn't mean your work is done. the role of citizen in our democracy does not end with your vote. america has never been about what can be done for us, what can be done by us together through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self government. that's the principle we were

founded on. this country has more wealth than any nation. but that's not what makes us rich. we have the most powerful military in history, but that's not what makes us strong. our university, our culture, are all the envy of the world, that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores. what makes america exceptional are the bond that hold together the most diverse nation on earth. the belief that our destiny is shared. that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and the future generations so that the freedom which so many americans have fought for and died for comes with the responsibilities as well as rights and among those are the love and charity and duty and patriotism. that is what makes america great!

i am hopeful tonight because i have seen the spirit of work in america. i have seen it in the family business whose owners would rather cut their own pay than lay off their neighbors. and in the workers who would rather cutback their hours than see a friend lose a job. i have seen it in the soldiers who reenlist after losing a limb. and in those seals who charged up the stairs into darkness and danger because they knew there was a buddy behind them watching their back. i have seen it on the shores of new jersey and new york, where leaders from every party and

level of government have swept aside their differences to help a community rebuild from the wreckage of a terrible storm. [ cheers and applause ] and i saw it just the other day -- in mentor, ohio, where a father told the story of his 8-year-old daughter whose long battle with leukemia nearly cost their family everything had it not been for health care reform passing just a few months before the insurance was about to stop paying for her care -- [ cheers and applause ] i had an opportunity to not just talk to the father, but meet this incredible daughter of his. and when he spoke to the crowd, listening to that father's

story, every parent in that room had tears in their eyes. because we knew that little girl could be our own. and i know that every american wants her future to be just as bright. that's who we are. that's the country i'm so proud to lead as your president. and tonight, despite all the hardship we have been through, despite all of the frustrations of washington, i have never been more hopeful about our future. i have never been more hopeful about america. and i ask you to sustain that hope. i'm not talking about blind optimism. the kind of hope that just

ignores the enormity of the tasks ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. i'm not talking about the wishful idealism that allows us to sit on the sidelines or shirk from a fight. i have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us, so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fight. [ cheers and applause ] america, i believe we can build on the progress we have made and continue to fight for new jobs and new opportunity and new security for the middle-class. i believe we can keep the promise of our founder, the idea that if you are welliilling to hard, it does matter who you are, where you come from, what

you look like, where you love, or if you are black, white, hispanic, asian, native american, or young or old, or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in america if you are willing to try! i believe we can seize this future together! because we are not as divided as our politics suggests. we're not as cynical as the pundits believe. we are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions. and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. we will and forever will be the united states of america and together with god's grace we will continue our journey forward and remind the world just why it is that we live in the greatest nation on earth! thank you, america!

god bless you! god bless this united states! >> and there you have it, the man who astounded the world with his extraordinary journey to the presidency four years ago. back, talking about the next four years, saying, george, he will sit down with governor romney, he will meet with leaders of the opposition, and this election has made him a better president. >> listen to and learn from even the americans who did not vote for him. as he gives his family a hug. sasha and malia. of course the first lady. there is vice president biden. and boy, the president, ending his campaign, celebrating his victory with real fire. also, reaching back to the first speech he gave on the national stage of 2004, the keynote speech for john kerry talking about being one united states of america.

he says we are an american family who rise or fall as one nation, as one people. that is the theme he wanted to give tonight. trying to give this united nation, as he faces a second term and all the challenges ahead. >> and in this divided country saying we know that passions have been stirred up, that we have fierce disagreements, but that our common purpose is so much bigger than our disagreements. and telling sasha and malia they will not get another dog. >> bipartisanship, that entire speech was streamed live on mittromney.com. received the call, governor romney said he was very classy. the president saying in the speech tonight he wants to meet with governor romney in the coming weeks, to talk how they can work together for the good of the country.

the president also saying he will meet down with the leaders of the other party. and try to come together to meet these challenges as well. >> it is a reminder of what an extraordinary, exceptional and inspiring country this is on a night like this when we have all come together to vote. so many long lines, so many obstacles, so much passion, such a hard fought race, and here we are again. a president who has been re-elected tonight. as a point of privilege as we are watching this i just want to thank our technical team here at abc news election headquarters, i want to thank every single person off the air, because you have seen a lot of us on the air. you have no idea, the legions

are behind the scenes and what they do. again all of you went to the polls and voted. >> everyone in this room, everyone who participated in the pageant of democracy. thank you for joining us. >> we end with this, a woman, i have three sons who served in the military, my husband served too, i voted because he fights for our freedom every day. to all of you, good night. ♪ ♪

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